DARPA's micro-tech office returns to its roots

By Mark Rockwell

May 29, 2014

With bio-engineering projects now handled by a dedicated office, DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office is looking at spectrum use and extending Moore's Law.

After spinning out a number of biotechnology-based research programs, the Defense Department's Microsystems Technology Office is returning to its quest to advance cutting-edge communications and computing technologies.

Some of the Microsystems Technology Office's recent programs had been centered "at the intersection of biology and engineering," researching development of neural-interface and bio-manufacturing technologies, and other biological research-based efforts. But those are now overseen by the agency's new Biological Technologies Office.

MTO's to-do list

According to recent FedBizOps announcements, MTO's areas of current interest include the following topics:

Emerging MEMs technologies

Energy-efficient computing

Non-silicon electronics

Novel photonic devices

Quantum devices

Hardware assurance, reliability and validation

Low-volume microsystems manufacturing

Signal processing hardware

Low-power electronics

Thermal management

Advanced imaging architectures

Photonic & electronic interconnects

Microsystem design and CAD

Chip scale sensors

Microsystems for directed energy

Microsystems for precision navigation and timing

Microsystems for RF/optical transceivers

That clears the way for the MTO, a component of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which has historically worked to develop compact microelectronic components such as microprocessors, microelectromechanical systems and photonic devices that have gone into advanced imaging and computing systems, to return to its roots.

DARPA also noted that the increasing commercialization of advanced technologies has made military systems more affordable, but has also allowed advanced electronics to proliferate in the global environment. That wider access, it said, has blunted the U.S. strategic advantage, and means a renewed focus on "leap-ahead technologies" is needed to keep the U.S. edge.

"MTO's goal is to enable a whole new class of technology-driven capabilities for national security, as opposed to creating a single end-point solution," said Bill Chappell, MTO's acting office director and deputy director in the statement.

The agency has issued a number of broad inquiries to industry in the last few months via FedBizOpps looking for help with a list of computing research areas.

The agency's May 28 statement said it also wants to explore how to more effectively use congested electromagnetic spectrum and address the end of Moore's Law (the exponential growth of computing power which has historically roughly doubled every two years) -- to find affordable computing and communications solutions in an increasingly globalized, but financially constrained environment.

About the Author

Mark Rockwell is a staff writer at FCW.

Before joining FCW, Rockwell was Washington correspondent for Government Security News, where he covered all aspects of homeland security from IT to detection dogs and border security. Over the last 25 years in Washington as a reporter, editor and correspondent, he has covered an increasingly wide array of high-tech issues for publications like Communications Week, Internet Week, Fiber Optics News, tele.com magazine and Wireless Week.

Rockwell received a Jesse H. Neal Award for his work covering telecommunications issues, and is a graduate of James Madison University.